The alien flies again!

A little over five years ago I began a fun display piece called 'out of the box'. Then, as often happens, we got real busy and the unfinished piece gathered dust in a corner of the shop for a long while. When we took on the two extremely large projects two years ago we needed every square inch of working space. We cut off the ship and smoke trail and tossed the bottom section. The space ship was fastened to the wall until we had a little time to work on him. Now at last the little alien will fly again as part of the trade show display!

A little design fun

Zamperla, an Italian ride manufacturer, unveiled a beautiful new ride at the IAAPA show  few weeks ago. It was a great ride which offered guests the chance to pilot their own paraglider. Each kite is controlled by a push bar which hangs from above. The ride on display at the show was painted bright colours with lots of LED lights. As I eyeballed the ride set up inside the convention hall, my Zamperla contact asked me how I might theme the ride if I had the chance. Lots of ideas immediately came to mind. I promised Michael a concept drawing. Today I had a little fun sketching a new theme for the Windstarz ride. The centre pylon now sports a glider launching catapult and the ride sports a much more mechanical theme.